Sunday, February 15, 2009

Shovel Ready List

Have a look see at who in our state will benefit from the Obama stimulus plan at the state level. The 6 major categories are: Education; Energy; IT: Transportation; State Facilities; and Private Development. Clearly not all projects will be funded but some of our neighbors will be rewarded with work. Let's hope Jeffrey Simon makes good choices based on need and not politics.

19 Comments:

Mr. Pillsbury, there is an awful lot of information out there about the stimulus plan, the Governor’s plans for the state, even about Framingham’s budget issues. I see the new Superintendent is going to be getting an enormous salary. How can a regular person like me make any sense of this? I keep hearing about the $13 increase a week in my take home pay. Come on now, do you think an extra $52 a month is going to make much of a difference? That won’t even cover the cost of gas for my car for a month since the price of that keeps going up. I am lucky that I still have a job, but I owe $80,000 more on my house than it is worth, I need a new car but can’t get a car loan because my debt ratio is too high since I am upside down on my house. That means I am pouring a lot of money into the car I have now to keep it running. I took a 10% cut in pay at work, but the cost of everything else is going up, so I am getting further and further behind, and even though I have been paying my credit cards on time, they have lowered my available credit on both of my cards to the amount that I currently have as a balance, which means I have no credit available. My question is, is this plan going to help me? I know we need to do something, and I am on board with doing that. But, bottom line, am I going to see any releif from this, or should I figure it will just stop things from getting any worse than they are?

Pretty long list here and obviously not all of these projects are going to get done. I am just wondering how they decide which ones to do? Is it the decision of that new Stimulus Chief Patrick just appointed? Do we have any say in what projects get funded?

This list does not seem to be one that is going to create many jobs. Am I reading this wrong, do you seem the creation of thousands of jobs in anything on this list? This will maybe keep some people, union labor, working, and that is a very good thing, but there is nothing here that seems to say new jobs to me. What about this new “green energy” that the President talks about? That to me says new companies, small businesses, hiring new employees. I really don’t see anything on this list that indicates any new small businesses. I see some wind turbine stuff, but looks to me like they are looking to install turbines, which means they just want to buy from existing companies. Maybe I am too dumb to understand this stuff, but I don’t see anything on this list that gives me much hope that I will be able to find a job.

You can see which towns will benefit from the projects... just punch in a town in the search box. And yes.. it will help some of us work and get some buildings in better shape and yes a wind turbine is proposed for the State Police Headquarters in Framingham... this is significant for me, as I'm the one who stands in the way of the zoning board's attempt to stop or severely regulate the placement of wind turbines in Town. The one aspect we don't know at this point, how will the projects be evaluated... and if it's tied to politics.

It's all we got.. for now. In the coming weeks we will know how much of an impact it is having.

some tax relief will come your way, in varying forms in the coming weeks. Mortgage help should be already here, but it appears now that some of the banks are not playing fair and not helping people who need help.Most of us have reduced credit lines even when we are current. I had two reduced (Home DePot and Lowes) and owed nothing on them... it's just a matter of jitters among those who lend. No one is saying the crisis is over or even beginning to slow down. Car sales were up over the weekend in our area, some indications seem to say we are better off in the North East than say the deep South, Midwest and certainly California. Hang tuff, it's the only life we have at the moment and we have to make the best of it...until things better.

New green jobs will be created in the plan. Obama is just signing the deal today, so it will take a few weeks to get the funds out. And then we'll see how many new start ups are created with this money.

Green energy, green environment, the heck with all of that. I need some green money. None of this is going to work if we don’t get people like me back to work. Give me a job, any job, paying a sustainable salary, and I can deal with the rest of my problems. Won’t do me any good if you work with banks to lower payments for people in trouble on their mortgage because no bank is going to let me refinance when I don’t have a job. I am 54, surviving by digging into my retirement savings. But at my age, chances are I may not find another job, so what happens when the retirement savings run out? What I had saved is not going to last me 30 yrs. So I don’t care a rats ass about any of this stimulus stuff, I just need a job. Do something about that and you solve almost all the problems out there.

There's an estimated 80,000 jobs here in mass that the stimulus money is supposed to create. Green jobs are the future and I'm a year older than you, but realize my future and yours may lie in this arena. Us old folks have something to contribute to this. Have some hope brother......please.

First off, Mr. Pillsbury is not the person we should be banging over the head for answers here. He is doing a tremendous job of staying on top of the changing situation, but he can not make things happen. He is no more powerful than any of us. So stop complaining to him. He is smarter, more informed, and clearly more involved in this than we are, but he is one of us. Let’s not lose site of that fact. Second, we owe him a thank you and a debt of gratitude, so stop asking him to fix everything for us and start thanking him for doing such a great job of keeping us informed. And third, this is tough times for all of us. Stop expecting others to hold you up, lets all work to hold ourselves up and stay informed and on top of things so we can all benefit from being knowledgeable about our options. And again, thanks Mr. Pillsbury for all you are doing here to help all of us. Much appreciated.

I am wondering if anyone here has heard anything about unemployment benefits being extended. I am on the last 2 weeks of benefits, and still no job in site. When I call the unemployment office, I have been on hold for as long as 1 hr and 20 min, and then I got disconnected, so I have not been able to connect with anyone there. I know they are swamped, so I don’t really want to spend the money on gas to drive to the office and spend all day sitting there waiting to talk to someone with just this one question, so if anyone out there knows anything about this, I would appreciate it. And if they are being extended, what do I need to do to apply for the extension of my benefits? Have to leave the library now, so will check back later in the week when I have access to a computer. Thanks in advance to anyone who responds to my request.

One of the new Presidents agenda items on his energy policy is to weatherize something like one million homes to make them more energy efficient. I don’t see any mention of money to do this in the stimulus package and I don’t see this item listed on this shovel ready list. Any insight Jim on how that is suppose to happen? Seems to me that doing that work would employ quite a few people. I could work on that project as someone with some construction skills, and my home could use some weatherizing itself, so I could benefit from both sides of this program. Is this still going to happen, or is it just a wishful promise by the President?

I heard this morning that the Governor knows how much money he is getting from the Pres, and that Boston knows the dollar figure of how much of that money is going to the City. Anyone know how much of that money is going to Framingham? Is all the money from the Pres for these shovel ready projects, or is some of it to meet the budget shortfalls in the communities?

The final figures may not be know as of today, but the State is going to get a bucket of money 11 BILLION. 1 to 2 Billion for infrastructure and 1.2 Billion for the States operating budget. No one is reporting exactly how much Framingham will get, but they (the ruling elite) have identified 295 MILLION in proposed spending. The one troubling part for us, maybe the politicking of who gets what. Our own Senator Spilka and David Linsky sit on the Joint Committee on Economic Development and will have far reaching powers to audit any projects. As we all know, the lack of oversight, in ALL the projects, including the Big Dig and the political favoritism has cost us dearly and will do so for the next few generations. It remains to be seen, if indeed, transparency and honesty will be a hallmark in the process of doling out infrastructure monies. It's my educated guess, from looking at who has donated to the campaigns of the elected elite, that unions will fair much better than those who have not donated. It's a little scary to see what fox has been appointed to guard the chicken house, but this is all we have to work with and we ALL need to pay close attention to where these monies and to what extent do they help employee people.

I see the stock market plummeted yesterday, on the day the new stimulus package was signed and I have to admit that makes me more than a little nervous. The market is the indicator of the faith of the money people in what is happening, and a market drop of over 200 points is pretty indicative of no faith if you ask me. But today, it is level. Can someone explain this to me? The question is, how will we know if this was in fact a good plan, and if it was not a good plan, what happens? Anyone out there have any ideas on any of this?

Anon,After watching Greenspans speech and listening to what Obama has just said... it's clear to me.. that no one single person could possibly know or predict what the outcome is. The greatest of economic minds work on these issue's every day and I have to believe in what they come up with. The short term seems to be better off for most of us. Our children s future economic solutions may be harder to predict.Moreover, much of our future survival and success, will depend on us.. if we an come together and believe we can make it, one way or the other. We must adapt, overcome the obstacles, play fair and support one another.

Jim I just heard the Governor bought himself a fancy new vehicle, not as his primary vehicle, but as a secondary back-up. Ooops, correction, I should say we, the tax-payers just bought him a shiny new car. I wonder, is this a shovel ready project? I don’t see this on the list anywhere. I can’t imaging it came from state money since we are so under funded in MA that they are cutting salaries and jobs. I wonder what category of shovel ready a new, second car for the governor would come under? Any insight on this Jim?